Then that was gone too.
EIGHTEEN
Irregular beeping, like an alarm clock, permeates the blackness of my sleep. But I haven’t been sleeping, I’ve been unconscious. I carefully open my eyes and instantly regret moving. Nausea sweeps over me and I lean over and vomit into the waiting receptacle.
“Well, that’s a fine how do you do,” Kate says softly.
“Yeah, just insert witty comeback here,” I say as I fall back to the bed. She places a cold, wet rag against my lips. “Did we find Teddy in time?” I ask. Fear races through me, waking me up a little more. A cut like the one Blade inflicted on me could easily cause an infection that would result in me losing my leg.
“Yes, hon. The Miracle Worker managed to save your leg.”
“I like that. I might change my superhero name,” Teddy says from the foot of the bed. I can see better now; it’s just him and Kate in the room with me. He’s dressed in his doctor’s getup. Kate is wearing a loose-fitting summer dress with a floral print. Her hair is up in an elaborate braid and she has a touch of makeup on, looking elegant and perfect as ever.
“You going on a date?” I ask.
She smiles. “You interrupted my last one by needing saving. Carlos is taking me to Rome. It’s been a while since I went—should be fun. I’ll bring you back a nice jacket.”
Teddy clears his throat. “Once again, Amelia, I must remind you that you are not superpowered. Injuries like this are severe enough, but a hundred times worse for you. The next time you go into battle, make sure your armor stays on, okay?”
“Teddy, I promise never to get into a fight naked, ever again.”
He smirks. “Somehow, I doubt this will be the last time I treat such an injury. Bed rest, Amelia, three days. No moving while the healing sets in. Then you can go about your business.”
I smile and nod. “Of course.” I look at Kate then back to Teddy, they seem... pensive. “What’s going on? I wasn’t out for a year or something?”
Kate smiles, “No hon, just a day. Vixen... Carlos was about to turn her, to have her tell us who was behind all of this and then...”
“And?”
“Whatever they did to increase her power,” Teddy says, “they used nanites like your suit. When she was about to turn on them... she disintegrated.”
“Eww,” I say while making a face. “That’s disgusting.”
“Carlos thought so,” Kate says with an understanding smile. “He’s taking a few days off to regroup. Which is why we’re going to Rome.”
I nod. “Yeah totally. Thanks Teddy. Thank you Kate. You two have saved my bacon yet again.”
Teddy smiles, “Don’t worry, Amelia. I’m keeping a list.” He turns and walks out.
“Did Teddy just crack a joke?” I ask.
Kate shakes her head. “No, he really is keeping a list. So am I.” She leans down and kisses me on the forehead. “I’m really glad you’re okay. I’ll stop by later and check on you.”
“You’re not going to leave me here without a computer, are you?”
She screws her face up. “I am your best friend.” She points to the side table, which holds my tablet-slash-laptop. When I look back, she’s gone.
“Figures. She’s off to have a good time and I’m stuck here in a hospital with no lab!”
Next to the tablet are my glasses. I put them on and a message from Epic is waiting for me.
The lab will be completed in twenty-four hours. When you are ready to leave Teddy’s care, you can get to work.
“Oh yay!” I clap.
I pick up my computer and go to work. Unfortunately, as it stands, there is no way around the nanite shielding problem. I could use them for a flight suit, or even a multipurpose utility suit, but for combat that lasts more than twenty minutes? No. There’s just no way to build in EMI shielding on the subatomic level. I can shield the whole suit externally, but not internally. This brings me back to square one.
I just need to find out if there are any Th’un ships left on Earth.
“Epic, let’s run a search, just to be on the safe side. Visual recognition, data files, you name it. I want to know where every ship was located when downed, and where every piece of hull fragment went.”
That will take significant computing resources. While I am doing this, I will be of limited use in other capacities.
“This is really important. I need that metal back, Epic. My old suits aren’t strong enough anymore, and if the nanites aren’t the answer... we need to be ready for what’s coming.”
What is coming?
“You saw how Pythia reacted when she touched me. I don’t know what’s about to happen, but I do know it won’t be pleasant. A stab to the leg is just the beginning.”
Affirmative. I will begin the search immediately.
“Now all we have to do is wait,” I say to no one since he is already gone. One of the things that consistently bothers me about my armor is the lack of weapons options. I keep designing things around the same couple of basic techs. Maybe it’s time to do some theoretical research. I sigh as I take the drawing pen from the laptop and go to work. Or maybe... maybe I could combine some Lux technology from the quantum field gate and my own kinetic field generators and just maybe come up with something to save Tia.
NINETEEN
Amelia?
I blink several times. My mouth tastes like cotton balls. I must have fallen asleep. I take a second to clear my head and remember where I am.
The lab! Right. After an infuriatingly long time in the Spire hospital, I’m back to work in my own place and it’s all white and shiny, and huge. So many workstations. I feel like I’m on the set of Star Trek. The north wall is nothing but monitors and inputs. The south wall is all the machines I might need for research. Articulating arms hang from the ceiling to move samples, armor, whatever I need. Every tool I could want is available for the asking and it’s all automated.
Of course, this is the only floor that is finished. I set up a ZPFM generator to give it power and if I want to use the bathroom, there’s a porta-potty for that. Rutabaga’s team is still finishing off the rest of the base.
The hangar is mostly done—enough that I can take off and arrive via Emjet. The lab is soundproofed, so I don’t hear all the construction that is going on above and below me.
“What is it, Epic?”
I have an idea. We have searched the planet for the last three days since you left the hospital, but to no avail. As far as computer records go, the Red Wizard spoke the truth; the ships were sent to another dimension, lost forever.
“I never thought he was lying, but with ARC seemingly after Animetal, I thought there might be some left.”
Yes. Now we know why ARC is after it.
“We do?”
I seriously doubt they managed to solve a problem you cannot. Their nanites cannot be shielded from their own power source any more than yours can.
“Right. Which gives them limited utility. If they had Animetal, then they could build their androids and other automatons out of something far sturdier. God, this is just like Ericsson trying to steal my armor for his warbot army.”
There are parallels. However, whoever is behind ARC seems willing to sell their tech to the highest bidder, as Las Vegas showed. They also are playing a game.
“How so?” I ask my friend.
Every time you make a move, they counter it. You want to make new armor, they steal Animetal. You try to find the frequency to search for more, they attack and disable the Spire. You hunker down to research... they draw you out with an attack on your parents.
“Are you saying all this stuff that is going on is directed at me to keep me from... what?”
Presumably either building a new set of armor or finding the other alien ships in order to do so.
“It doesn’t entirely fit, but it’s close enough to make sense. Add in the EU’s sudden desire to reign in Carlos, and it almost feels like they are trying to keep me penned in and cut off from help
... but why? What are they hoping to accomplish? Making money hardly seems like a motive. It would help if we knew who was behind this.”
I look around, stifling a yawn. Epic isn’t wrong; there’s no solving the EMI destabilizing issue with the nanites. I can use them for a lot of things, just not anything that causes a power surge for any significant amount of time.
If only I knew where the ships were.
Incoming call from Carlos.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“I need to talk to you right away. Can I come see you?” he asks tersely.
I look around. The fake entrance isn’t ready yet. When it is, he can come drop in anytime he wants just by tossing the spear down the hole hidden by a holographic rock on top of the mesa. Something I’m super excited about. Every base needs a secret entrance, or in this case, two.
“Yeah, I can be at the Spire in forty minutes.”
“No, right now. I can be on top of your new base in seconds. Please, Niña, it’s important.”
He hardly ever calls me Niña anymore. In fact, the amount of time we hang out socially has dropped to near zero. It doesn’t help that I don’t like Pythia. I understand why she did what she did, but that doesn’t make me like it. Or her.
“Yeah, come on down. I’ll be up shortly.”
I hang up the phone and wheel over to the elevator. “Epic, prepare one can, please. Just in case.”
Affirmative. However, please do not forget what will happen if you are in combat for very long.
I nod. “I doubt anything is going to happen, but Carlos sounded worried. I would be negligent to not prepare for any possibility.”
Understood. Can deposited.
I can’t help but smile as I hear the can drop down from the soda machine style dispenser by the lift doors. Despite Epic’s protests, I went with the name I wanted.
The can is the size of a 12oz Coke. However, the background is white, and in red letters it says...
CAN OF WHOOP ASS
OPEN IN CASE OF DANGER
I slip it into the cup holder built into the chair. “Roof.” The lift moves up for a few seconds. As we pass through the next floor up, my living quarters, I can hear hammering and other construction noise. Once this place is complete I don’t plan on leaving often.
Not that Luke would approve of that... but Luke’s dead.
I try really hard to push that thought away. I’ve put off really giving into my grief up to this point—I think I can put it off a little longer.
Oh, how I miss him though.
“Focus, Amelia. Focus.” I squeeze my fist shut and dig my nails into my hand to keep from crying. Dammit. I’ve been doing such a great job of focusing on the problems at hand that I completely buried it. And now I’ve gone and lifted the lid an inch. I can almost hear Kate’s voice telling me to let it out.
The lift doors open, and the hot Arizona air evaporates the tears on my face almost immediately. Good timing. The top of the mesa I picked isn’t what I would call, “handicap accessible” for wheelchairs.
However, the lift is specially designed to run on magnetic rails, like a Japanese train. The lift itself can run right to the roof unlike a conventional elevator. This way, I just have an oddly shaped rock on top that opens if I need to come up here, or if I have a guest. For five feet in front of it the ground is smooth and easy for me to move around on. It’s my secret emergency exit.
Sunlight shines from above and movement makes me look, the Spear of Destiny, the very same one I stole from the Vatican, falls from the sky and lands in front of me. A second later The Protector, in all his bronze-age armored glory, hits the ground. His shield is on his back and his bare arms ripple as he moves. He stands up from the crouch and smiles at me while lifting his helmet off.
“Hey,” he says quietly.
“Hey yourself. What’s going on?”
He looks around like he is nervous, but we’re in the middle of nowhere.
“Want to show me your lab?”
“Do I! Come on,” I say excitedly. All my urgent thoughts go right out the window in the haze of excitement. It will be just like old times. I wheel around and the rock opens to let us in.
“Cool,” he mutters as we board the lift.
Five minutes later I’ve shown him the whole of the lab, not that there is a ton to see. But he oohs and ahhs in all the right places.
“Okay, Carlos, what gives?” I ask him as I show him the last computer.
He sighs, sitting down in one of my guest chairs, placing the helmet on the floor next to him. “Amelia... I... I can’t just come and hang out with you?” he asks.
I briefly feel like a jerk, but it’s not like he comes and visits as Carlos. He’s dressed up as the Protector.
“Of course you can, amigo. Anytime. But after what happened in Greece... I feel like you’re not here to chat about the latest Call of Duty release.”
He smiles then it turns into a chuckle. “I wish.” He plays with the leather wrapped around his shin for a moment before continuing. “It’s about Tia. I know...” he sighs. “I know where and when you can find her... sort of.”
My eyes go involuntarily wide. I see the monitor behind him come to life and Epic asks.
Where?
“How?” Epic and I speak at the same time.
Carlos looks past me to the screen then back to me. “Amelia... are you sure? Are you sure you want to do this?”
I’m stunned. It takes me a second to work my thoughts into cohesion to answer him.
“Carlos, what the devil are you talking at? I have to save her. I have to. She’s not dead and the only reason she was even here to fight that monster was because of me. From what I can tell, ISO-1 only attacked the Protectors because of me.”
“How do you know that?” he asks.
“Epic and I worked it out. But trust me, they’ll get theirs. I just can’t focus on them right now—I’ve got Epic looking into them. Carlos,” I say with a heavy sigh. “I have to save someone!” I hit the arm of my chair. “Luke is gone, and he can’t come back. But if there is even the smallest chance I can save Tia... I have to. I just... I have to,” I say that last part in a whisper and suddenly I feel so alone.
“You can’t save everyone, Niña. Believe me, I know,” he says quietly.
I run my sleeve over my eyes and sniffle. “It doesn’t matter if I can’t save everyone. I’m not talking about everyone; I’m talking about Tia. Now, when and where do I need to be to save her?”
He takes a breath and lets it out, seemingly shrinking as he does. Leaning back, he looks me in the eyes for a long moment. “Have you figured out how to pull her back together?”
“Maybe. During the fight in Las Vegas I had a number of... technical glitches.”
He chuckles. “Like your armor leaving you naked on the concrete floor?”
“You saw that?” I shriek, my face going hot at the thought of him seeing me without clothes on.
He shakes his head. “No. Kate told me.”
I nod, of course she did. Imp. I’m going to get her. “Anyway,” I say as I turn around and face the computer to pull up my design, “I’m calling it the Quantum Algorithm Computer Kinetic Electro Resistance Shield. Or QUACKERS, for short,” I say with a grin. I love naming things, and to think I used to be bad at it.
“Quackers? That sounds like something Elmer Fudd would say.”
“It’s an awesome name on so many levels. One being, this is crazy. The other being, I don’t actually have a doctorate but here I am doing high-level theoretical quantum physics. So that makes me...”
“A quack,” he says with a grin.
“Got it in one, Muscles. Theoretically, the field will entangle on the subatomic level and bring her back together. I just need to know where her ‘ghost’ is and when to be there. If it works, she’ll come back together in a few minutes and,” I clap my hands together, “booyah.”
If it works. While the machine does turn on, and there is indeed a field generate
d by it, without Tia’s presence there is no way to test it. If I even knew two or three of the variables regarding how she moves while ‘scattered’ I could calculate it myself, but I do not.
Carlos nods again, picks up his helmet and stands. “I can’t give you coordinates or anything, only the vague hint that Pythia told me to tell you at the right time.”
“Pythia,” I spit out.
“I know how you feel about her Amelia, but she does everything she can. She has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders.”
“Don’t we all,” I say.
“Right. Okay. Here it is. She said ‘Take it with you when you go swimming.’
I stare at him, slack-jawed. “Seriously. Carlos, have you ever known me to go swimming? Hello?” I point at my legs. “That’s the stupidest hint I’ve ever heard in my life. What the heck? Take it with me when I go swimming. Argh. I’m going to kill that woman.”
Carlos slips his helmet on over his head. “You have no idea how hard it was for me to get her to share that much. She didn’t want to tell you anything. At all. She’s convinced if you don’t figure it out on your own then it won’t work. It was all I could do to even give you that much.”
Now I feel like a jerk. Again. “I’m sorry, Carlos. I know you have your responsibilities to her. But I’m your friend and I need help, and all you come to me with is vague cryptic nonsense.”
He stiffens. “Amelia, you would think, after everything you’ve been through, that you would be willing to take a little more on faith.”
“She’s playing me... again. Again!”
“I don’t think she is,” he says quietly.
“Why not?”
“Because everything you just said, word for word, is exactly what she said you would say.”
I open my mouth to retort then clamp it shut.
“Dammit,” I mutter. The lift doors open waiting to take us to the surface.
TWENTY
We ride up the lift in silence. He’s right. I know it, and he knows I know it. I just can’t bring myself to say it. The doors open and he walks with me wheeling behind him. The sun is fading and it casts a red light on everything.
Arsenal Reloaded (Full Metal Superhero Book 8) Page 11
